1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic group buying system for the sale of goods and services, also sometimes referred to herein as an “online buying group.” More particularly, embodiments of the invention relate to such on-line buying groups and systems of the type described and claimed in a related copending, commonly assigned application filed Mar. 15, 1999 in the names of Tom Van Horn, Niklas Gustafsson and Dale Woodford, and entitled “Demand Aggregation Through Online Buying Groups,” U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/270,219; commonly owned U.S. Pat. No. 6,101,484, issued Aug. 8, 2000 to Richard V. Halbert et al. and entitled “Dynamic Market Equilibrium Management System, Process and Article of Manufacture”; a copending, commonly assigned application filed Sep. 30, 1999 in the names of Tom Van Horn, Jon C. Engman, Richard V. Halbert, Niklas Gustafsson, Dale Woodford, Jerome P. Pache, and Greg C. Dean, and entitled: “System and Method for Extension of Group Buying Throughout the Internet,” U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/409,237; and a copending, commonly assigned application filed Jun. 19, 2000 in the names of Tom Van Horn, Dale A. Woodford, Richard V. Halbert, and Kevin Dean Wampler, entitled “System and Method for Enhancing Buyer and Seller Interaction During a Group Buying Sale,” U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/596,921; the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated by reference herein. The invention further relates to such a system, process and article of manufacture that utilizes modified pricing to provide the advantages of group purchasing power in an on-line group-buying sale.
2. Introduction to the Invention
The inventions described and claimed in the above applications and issued U.S. Patent allow efficient and convenient implementation of on-line group-buying sales of goods and services. As described in those applications, an on-line group-buying sale typically results in a decreasing price of a product or service offered in the sale as more buyers join the group by making offers to purchase the product. While this approach is appropriate for many products and services, there are some products and services that would benefit from a different form of pricing, while still maintaining the principle that buyers receive a better value as more buyers join an on-line group-buying sale.
Many on-line group-buying sales, e.g., in implementations by the assignee of this application, may be completed at the sale's end through the user of a debiting mechanism, (e.g., a buyer's credit card) to pay for the goods. For obvious reasons, the use of a credit card is the preferred method of handling payment in e-commerce. However, credit card payment, as well as other forms of debit payment, represents a problem in the case of relatively high priced goods and services, such as automobiles, since most card holders do not have high enough credit limits to pay for an automobile or similar high priced merchandise. It is further desirable to allow such on-line group-buying sales to be carried out in a way that will promote the product without causing channel conflict, i.e., without disturbing existing sales channels for the product. It is therefore desirable to provide a modified form of an on-line group-buying sale for products, services, sellers and partners that would benefit from marketing a decreasing price for their product in a new way.
Other ways in which this invention provides unique benefits in on-line group-buying sales are set forth in various parts of this document below.
3. Background
The systems, processes and articles of manufacture described in the above related pending applications and issued patent disclose the use of decreasing purchase prices in on-line group-buying sales. A pertinent disclosure in the issued patent is the teaching at col. 7, lines 54–56 that a price curve with an increasing price for a product could be utilized.
Additional specific examples of e-commerce systems implemented on the Internet or other networks are disclosed in the prior art references of record in the prosecution of the related patent and the related pending applications. The interested reader is referred to those prior art references for further description of those systems.